In wireless communication systems, antenna arrays are used at devices on one or both ends of a communication link to suppress multipath fading and interference, and to increase system capacity by supporting multiple co-channel users and/or higher data rate transmissions. For example, in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications systems, a base station (BS) device and each of a plurality of mobile station (MS) devices are equipped with a plurality of antennas. In addition, the BS device can use an antenna array to beamform signals to a particular destination MS device and in so doing provide higher received signal power and reduced interference from other MS devices.
However, broadcast signals such as preamble data signals or media access protocol (MAP) data signals must be successfully received by all destination devices, including new destination device for which communication has not been previously established. Generally, the BS cannot apply different beamforming weights to beamform the broadcast signals to each of the destination MS devices. Thus, it is difficult to achieve a high average received signal power when broadcasting signals to multiple destination devices subject to overall transmit power limitations at the BS device.
Accordingly, a technique for pre-coding broadcast signals with appropriate beamforming weight vectors is provided that can achieve an omni-directional power distribution across a sector and thereby improve system performance.